Dental Assisting Draft 1

Project Summary

SkillsIQ, under the direction of the Dental Industry Reference Committee (IRC), has undertaken a project to update the packaging rules of the two Dental Assisting qualifications and to update fourteen Dental Assisting Units of Competency and six Oral Health Care Units of Competency to align to the changing duties of existing and future job roles of all dental support staff, including dental assistants.

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The aim of the proposed updates is to ensure that the dental health sector and associated sectors (i.e. education, community services, etc.) are supported by a high-quality trained and skilled dental assisting workforce. Facilitating access to training in these specialist areas will support dental practices to improve efficiencies in operations, and also maximise patient health and safety in all dental services delivered.

The following key areas have been considered during the Training Package update process:

Current structure – The current structure and packaging of the qualifications includes core, electives and elective specialisations

Specialist areas – The current Certificate III and IV in Dental Assisting do not include sufficient training in specialist instrument usage, infection prevention and control, or procedural/surgical support for the workforce in dental specialist fields

Simultaneous updates – Both qualifications are being updated simultaneously to ensure consistency in the update process and to further ensure that final outcomes are suitable and fit-for-purpose.

Orthodontic dental assistance – There has been an increase in demand for orthodontic dental services where dental assistants are involved in supporting orthodontic procedures.

Assisting in implant and surgical dental procedures – An increase in specialist services such as dental implants, oral surgery and oral maxillofacial surgery has resulted in additional duties for the dental assisting job roles to support these specialist procedures.

To inform the update of the two Dental Assisting qualifications, fourteen Dental Assisting Units of Competency and six Oral Health Care Units of Competency, a Dental Assisting Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) comprised of stakeholders and subject matter experts from across Australia was formed. Formation of the TAC informed the identification and validation of the exact nature of the skills needs and knowledge requirements in the industry and the respective Training Package Product update requirements.

As a result, the following changes have been proposed:

Packaging rules for both the Dental Assisting qualifications have been revised to include Units of Competency relevant to the role of the Dental Assistant.

The Certificate III in Dental Assisting has been updated to comprise eleven core units of competency.

The Certificate IV in Dental Assisting has been updated to include thirteen core and four elective Units of Competency to be selected from the following specialisations:
o Group A – Dental Radiography
o Group B – Oral Health Education
o Group C - General Anaesthesia, Conscious Sedation and Relative Analgesia
o Group D – Technical Records
o Group E – Dental Practice Administration

The following Dental Assisting Unit of Competency has been recommended for deletion:
o HLTDEN013 Allocate treatment appointments according to priority

The following Oral Health Care Unit of Competency has been recommended for deletion:
o HLTOHC004 Provide or assist with oral hygiene

Two new Units of Competency have been developed to cover the following specialist areas:
o HLTDEN028 Provide effective oral hygiene instruction to patients with an oral health treatment plan
o HLTDEN029 Assist in oral health care procedures during relative analgesia

To take forward Training Package Product development work, the Dental Assisting TAC and Dental IRC will subsequently review and confirm the changes required for the development of Draft 2, based on feedback received from the first round of consultation.

Consultation Activities and Timelines

National consultation on Draft 1 will occur from 1 November and will close at 5.00pm on Friday, 13 December 2019. During this period input will be sought on the updated two draft qualifications, two new Units of Competency, eighteen updated existing Units of Competency and their associated Assessment Requirements.

A Consultation Guide, which should be read in Conjunction with the Draft 1 Training Package Products is available for download at the bottom of this page.

During this time SkillsIQ will be meeting with industry stakeholders, employers and subject matter experts (SMEs). If you have expertise in these areas and would like to meet with SkillsIQ, please contact Devika Mudaliar via devika.mudaliar@skillsiq.com.au or via phone at (02) 9392 8100.

Following the close of the consultation period, feedback received will be collated and evaluated. This feedback will inform the development of Draft 2, which will be made publicly available for validation prior to the submission for endorsement.

A series of face-to-face workshops will be held across all states and territories, along with webinars and access to the SkillsIQ Online Feedback Forum page. Please click on the links below to register for a workshop or webinar.

Attachments

Certificate III and IV in Dental Assisting - Consultation Guide

Recent Comments

Jenni Wright 13.12.2019

"Element 1:
- 1.1 Delete ‘charts’ – they ARE records
- 1.4 Give PPE to Patient only – Dental Team PPE should be individual’s own responsibility in line with IC and HHA guidelines.
- The need to pre-dispense materials should be detailed here – modify 1.3 and/or 1.5 as appropriate?
Element 3:
Should there be a specific requirement for accurate spelling, or is that assumed in 3.1 as it is necessary for Legal records?
Element 4: Checking the expiry dates of a prescribed drug should be the responsibility of the person administering it. The general monitoring of expiry dates of medicaments and materials is covered at 6.3
Element 5:
- PC 5.7 change ‘sterile’ to ‘other’ (not all stock that needs to be protected from contamination is sterile)
- PC 5.8 the “Cleaning and change-over’ is the only time in the whole course the decontamination between patients is mentioned. This procedure must be given more importance in the Dental-specific units especially when it the unit HLTINF001 is not contextualised, (depending on the RTO) and many students can come in to the DA course with Credit for this unit
"

"Just some general food for thought. While DAs are an integral part of the Dental team. they are not required to have any formal education.
However, in my experience, when a DA has a Cert III (or is required to have one for a position) it is held in higher regard, and the expectations of the abilities of the DA exceed the ASQA level suggests. Employers rarely read training packages.
Also, I would just like to comment in general that the Term "scope of practice" is mentioned throughout these comments several times. In fact, Dental Assistants don't have a "scope of practice" as such. Their "Scope" is the same as the general public. I think we should keep this in mind when discounting what a person is able to do after appropriate training.
E.g. if your neighbour can recommend a toothpaste, then a suitably qualified DA certainly can. "

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